First Responders

This page collects data from the Bloomington Police Department (BPD) and the Bloomington Fire Department (BFD). Partial data from January to September 2017 is included in the graphs below. All other years are complete unless otherwise indicated.

Bloomington Police department Calls for Service Breakdown

*Traffic Stops are Officer Initiated

Bloomington Fire Department Calls For Service

Although law enforcement and first responders are not traditionally viewed as being social service providers, they are often dispatched to situations involving mentally ill and homeless individuals.

As a result, police officers and firefighters are often expected to handle challenging situations involving persons in crisis. This summer’s spike in spice and heroin overdoses was a clear example of this. Personnel from both BPD and BFD were trained on emergency usage of Naloxone; however, personnel from neither agency have training as paramedics.

Between BPD, BFD, and the Monroe County Health Department there were 40 documented usages of Naloxone in Bloomington in 2017. Anecdotally, the police and fire departments believe the usage was much higher. While research shows that issues like homelessness and drug addiction require a robust social safety net with coordinated services, municipalities across the country often make do by leveraging the flexibility of their emergency services personnel.

Bloomington police department CALLS FOR SERVICE AVErAGE TIME

The impact of this is further underscored by the fact that welfare checks take more time to complete than other types of calls. In 2016, BPD responded to 7,040 traffic related calls and 3,263 welfare checks, but in terms of actual time spent, BPD spent 5,714 hours on welfare checks and only 4,880 hours on traffic calls. In essence, even a modest increase in calls related to welfare checks would represent a significant increase in time commitment from the city’s police department.

CALLS FOR SERVICE BY LOCATION (2015-2017)

These calls are not randomly distributed across the city. A majority of BPD’s calls are within five blocks of Walnut Street, and most 'Welfare' calls are concentrated in the downtown area.

The geography of the region offers an explanation. Shalom Community Center, which provides shelter, food, showers, laundry, and other services, is near the downtown area as is Seminary Square Park, which, due to its borders of Walnut Street, College Avenue, and 2nd Street, creates an enclosed area for visitors. Bloomington Hospital is just across the B-Line trail and Big Red Liquors is in the vicinity. In short, this area provides an array of service options.

Although the city set records for overdoses in the summer of 2017, overall there were no spikes in call volume for BPD. Anecdotally, BPD and BFD reported that many of their runs during the summer were repeat encounters. While it may have appeared as if individuals were using multiple times a day, they may have just experienced the effects of multiple Naloxone disruptions. Often, an individual would temporarily recover from an overdose and then re-overdose hours later.

USE OF FORCE, OFFICER INVOVLED SHOOTINGS, AND FIREARM SEIZURES

The above data represents a collection of visualizations related to the Bloomington Police Departments use of force and the threats they face. The statistics under the "Use of Force Incidents Statistics" header high how often a suspect or an officer was injured during all use of force cases in 2016 and 2017. Statistics under the Laird Law Pleadings, represent the number of individuals either the Prosecutor's Office or the Bloomington Police Department sought a court order under Indiana's Laird Law to seize an individual's firearms. Two individuals had over 40 individual fire arms.

2016 and 2017 Detailed Use of Force Dashboard

The above dashboard is a detailed breakdown of use of force incidents in 2016 and 2017. Use the selector box on the side to view use of force data for an individual call type. 2016 and 2017 are currently both represented in all data.

There is no avoiding the introduction of errors within raw data, which relies on data provided that cannot always be verified. Information contained in these data sets may change. The Bloomington Police Department is not responsible for any error or omission from this data, or for the use or interpretation of the results of any research conducted.

All data is presented as being comprised of unique incidents, it does not account for repeat events involving the same individual. Users of data should understand that visualizes represent incidents, not individuals.

This site was created by the Mayor's Office of Innovation utilizing data provided by the Bloomington Police Department, Bloomington Fire Department, Controller's Office, Parks and Recreation Department, Housing and Neighborhood Development Department, Monroe County Department of Health, Monroe County Court Appointed Special Advocates, Shalom Community Center, Monroe County Prosecutor's Office, Indiana State Department of Health, IU Health Bloomington, DataUSA.io, and the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

This site was developed in conjunction with the Safety, Civility and Justice Metrics Team. The team was formed in August of 2017 following a recommendation by the Safety, Civility and Justice Task Force to create metrics related to Bloomington's safety, civility, and justice issues. The SCJ Metrics team was comprised of representatives from the Community and Family Resources Department, the Bloomington Fire Department, the Bloomington Police Department, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Monroe County Health Department and the Mayor's Office of Innovation. Since August, the team has met twice a month to propose metrics, gather data, and discuss how that data should influence city policy.